By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell book
NY Mag
LITERARY SDNY, Dec 22 – When Kurt Wheelock got to the SDNY courthouse on crypto day, the first place he went was to the Magistrates Court. It was unlocked, and a detained defendant about to plea guilty. But strangely Kurt was the only non court staff person there.
The defendant was from Mexico and charged with conspiracy to distribute "mixtures and substances" constituting fentanyl. His plea deal was for from 108 to 135 months. But when he told his story, it was that a woman named Bianca had offered him $500 to move a box from one car to another.
And I did it, the defendant said, in Spanish.
The judge took off his eyeglasses and rubbed them, then rubbed his head. Give us a moment your Honor, the prosecutor said, and walked over to the defense counsel and whispered with him. Kurt could hear, if he wanted. But he didn't want to report it, so he started humming Joy Division to himself, the 1980 concern in Amsterdam that he listen to on the subway to Foley Square.
The huddle broke up, and now the defendant said that he consciously avoided knowing what was in the box. Those were the magic words. The plea was accepted, and the defendant hustled back into the holding cell by the Marshals.
Kurt learned that Bankman-Fried's presentment would be later, up in a larger courtroom on the 23rd floor. He tweeted it, without sourcing it, then went to cover another case.
At noon he went back and took his laptop into the fire stairs, recorded and voiced-over the UN noon briefing, Chinese state media asking softball after pro Russian questions and the spokesman Stephane Dujarric smiling and delivering for these, Guterres' masters.
Did Kurt's crypto readers even care about the UN? He tried to mix the two.
At 12:50 Kurt went up to the 23rd floor. There was a crowd in the hall; the courtroom wasn't yet open. When it was, he was offered the chance to go into the jury box, but only if he wouldn't leave during the proceeding. Kurt wanted to preserve that right, so he sat in the back of the room.
Right at 1 o'clock they led Bankman-Fried out of the holding cell. He had on a suit, but was shackled at the feet. All rise! The prosecutor said that at counsel table he had a "location monitoring specialist."
That was it, Kurt diagnosed. The US Attorney's Office was agreeing to release on bond.
And they did, for an unsecured bond of $250 million, along with a lien against SBF's parents' home in Palo Alto. As with Moonstone Bank, Kurt jotted it down to look into it. He filed a FOIA request.
Another date was set up on January 3, at which Bankman-Fried could appear by video from Palo Alto. He was taken to pre-trial service and even as Kurt wrote up his story, Bankman-Fried was finished. Kurt joined the scrum on Worth Street, even less chance of asking a question than from Trevor Milton, much less Michael Avenatti. This one was different. How different, Kurt resolved to find out.
There were no questions. And later through sources Kurt learned the internal basis for rushing SBF through - he had already booked a 4:30 pm flight to California.
The next morning, belatedly, the guilty plea allocutions of Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, Kurt got and tweeted them out - leading in new directions. Be to continued -- more on Patreon here 1 and here 2 and here 3
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